Opinion

July 17, 2017 @ 3:43 pm By JD Alois  |  

Recently the total amount of Reg CF (or Regulation Crowdfunding) issuers successfully funded topped $40 million. According to the data dashboard on NextGen Crowdfunding, total amount of investor commitments has now topped $46 million. The rule created by the JOBS Act that allows companies to… Read More

July 17, 2017 @ 8:30 am By Erin Hobey  |  

“As the industry matures and looks to grow beyond a base of early adopters, I believe a focus on clarity will best help us to attract new investors.” Growth Street, an FCA-authorized UK business finance platform focusing on SME loans, has aimed to become a… Read More

July 15, 2017 @ 1:50 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Initial Coin Offering (ICO) space has been rocketing recently. It seems that every few days the next hot ICO is raising incredible sums of money from global investors. ICOs have plenty of supporters and detractors with most followers advising caution in this largely unregulated… Read More

July 14, 2017 @ 2:29 pm By JD Alois  |  

In a letter addressed to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, authored by the Bitcoin Foundation based in San Francisco, a request was made to back off of a proposed uniform statute entitled, “Uniform Regulation of Virtual Currency Business.” In brief, the… Read More

July 14, 2017 @ 9:51 am By JD Alois  |  

PwC has recently published a report on the status of Fintech in China, which happens to be the largest Fintech market in the world. This week, PwC Chairman and CEO of Greater China Raymund Chao presented the research in Hong Kong to the LendIt China… Read More

July 14, 2017 @ 8:21 am By Timothy Li  |  

Hong Kong AMTD-LendIt Conference officially kicked off today in one of the most metropolitan cities in the world, Hong Kong, China. This town, considered as one of the busiest financial centers of the world is now on the brink of another step in this city’s… Read More

July 13, 2017 @ 6:01 pm By Therese Torris  |  

  Germany is a huge SME and VSME (very small business) credit market. But it is not as mature a market for online marketplace lending as the UK, the US, or even the Netherlands. This partly explains why Funding Circle Germany’s early loan book underperformed…. Read More

July 12, 2017 @ 2:27 pm By JD Alois  |  

In an address delivered today at the Economic Club of New York, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton outlined his vision of the nation’s top securities regulator. Focusing first on the SEC’s Mission;  to protect investors, to maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and to… Read More

July 11, 2017 @ 6:10 pm By Therese Torris  |  

On July 11, at the 23rd edition of the Paris Europlace International Financial Forum, Edouard Philippe, the Prime Minister of France reached out to 1,500 leaders of global financial services firms: “Welcome to Paris.” He said in English. “The French government is committed to boost… Read More

July 11, 2017 @ 12:00 pm By Jonathan Nieh  |  

Ether, the cryptocurrency based off of and powering the blockchain technology Ethereum, made headlines last month after soaring to over $400 a coin. The huge surge caused many people to speculate that Ethereum would one day surpass Bitcoin, the world’s most valuable cryptocoin both by market… Read More

July 11, 2017 @ 10:50 am By Therese Torris  |  

Banks represented by the European Banking Authority (EBA) and Fintechs represented through the Future of European Fintech are in profound disagreement about the technical standards for the implementation of the Second Directive on Payment Services (PSD2). Banks argue that screen scraping should be banned in… Read More

July 10, 2017 @ 7:45 am By Anthony Zeoli  |  

In a recent testimony to the Investor Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Scott Kupor, CEO & Managing Partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a $6.5 billion multi-stage venture capital firm, gave an amazingly comprehensive and concise description of today’s vanishing IPO market, the… Read More

July 9, 2017 @ 1:48 pm By Timothy Li  |  

After an exhausting flight from LAX to Hong Kong, I was greeted by friendly staff at LendIt China, also known as Lang Di Conference, at one of the busiest airports in the world. The amount of logistics communication from Bo Brustkern, Chairman at Lang Di… Read More

July 9, 2017 @ 12:37 pm By Jonathan Nieh  |  

Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF), which allows for true equity crowdfunding by small businesses and start-ups, has been in effect for over a year now. The amount of capital raised since Reg CF was launched last year has been steadily increasing as well as the number… Read More

July 7, 2017 @ 8:22 am By Jonathan Nieh  |  

Correction: a previous version of this article stated that LO3’s blockchain technology was based on Ethereum. LO3 currently uses their own proprietary private blockchain technology. According to an article published by Politico last month, a pilot program was launched in a neighborhood of Brooklyn that… Read More

July 6, 2017 @ 2:26 pm By Barry James  |  

  The thing that has struck more most forcibly is just how much untapped potential there is here – and how badly it is going to be needed. I’ve lived near the leading edge of technology for several decades now and seen how it has… Read More

July 6, 2017 @ 2:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

There is a bill circulating in Congress that may dramatically impact Reg A+ utilization – the crowdfunding rule that currently allows issuers to raise up to $50 million in a scaled disclosure environment. Sponsored by House Representatives Kyrsten Sinema and Trey Hollingsworth, the bill (HR… Read More

July 6, 2017 @ 10:34 am By JD Alois  |  

Seedrs is one of the largest investment crowdfunding platforms in the UK. It is also one of the largest platforms in the world. Today, Seedrs is celebrating its 5th year of operation. Over the years the platform has experimented and grown its online funding business… Read More

July 5, 2017 @ 1:26 pm By JD Alois  |  

A Discussion with Charles d’Haussy, Head of Fintech, InvestHK. Hong Kong has been a definitive leader in global finance and trade for many decades. Yet when it comes to Fintech, embracing financial innovation has been slower than some other centers of alternative finance. But recently Hong… Read More

July 2, 2017 @ 7:53 am By JD Alois  |  

The presentation embedded below is an interesting perspective on the growth of alternative finance, specifically in Europe. There has been a certain amount of discussion regarding the tepid growth of investment crowdfunding in the US (not including marketplace lending) and the reasons why the sector… Read More